Charlton fans convince energy drink Coco5 to rule out making commercial deal with the club as part of protests against owner Roland Duchatelet
Charlton have missed out on a potential commercial deal after their own fans persuaded a possible partner not to work with the Championship club.
Energy drink brand Coco5 ruled out a financial arrangement with Charlton after being bombarded with social media messages from Addicks fans upset at the way their club is being run.
Supporters of the second tier’s basement club have been protesting against Belgian owner Roland Duchatelet, who has attended just four games since purchasing Charlton over two years ago.
Read more: Why Roland Duchatelet's project at Charlton is failing
The Campaign Against Roland Duchatelet group, as part of its drive to oust the absentee chief, called on Charlton fans to contact Coco 5 and dissuade them from any deal which could benefit the club financially.
Once Coco5 was made aware of the level of opposition it felt any commercial deal would be counter-productive, according to the chief executive of C7 Brands, which markets the drink in Britain.
“A conversation took place about a potential commercial tie-up between ourselves and Charlton,” C7 boss Steve Barton told City PM
“But when we then saw the fan reaction yesterday to even the possibility of us approaching Charlton I issued a statement via Twitter.
“There appears to be a high level of unhappiness with the current regime there. So given the passion and level of social media messaging we were left with one option: to assure fans that we would not be pursuing any commercial links with Charlton whatsoever.”
The efforts to convince Coco5 against any sponsorship form part of Charlton fans' protests against absentee owner Duchatelet.
Supporters are angry at what they perceive to be a flawed player recruitment strategy, the departure of star players such as Yann Kermorgant, Joe Gomez and Diego Poyet and a record of five different head coaches in two years under the Belgian's ownership.
Their latest campaign follows a series of successful fan protests elsewhere, including at Liverpool and Arsenal who were forced to reconsider their ticketing policy in the wake of supporter activity.
Charlton declined to comment when contacted by City PM